A smarter Europe by

promoting innovative

and smart economic

transformation

Zuzana Gáková

Unit for Portugal and Spain in cooperation

with the Unit for Smart and Sustainable

Growth, DG Regional and Urban Policy

6 December 2019, i3S Porto

Norte de Portugal: Os Caminhos de uma

Região Inovadora

#CohesionPolicy

#EUinmyRegion

Cohesion Policy Objective 1: 2021-27 A smarter Europe by

promoting innovative and smart economic transformation

Enhancing R&I capacities + uptake of advanced technologies

Digitisationfor citizens, companies

and governments

Developing skills for S3, industrial transition and

entrepreneurship

Growth and competitiveness of

SMEs

start-up/scale-up

Smart Specialisation

Strategies

Interregional innovation investments

Scope of support from the ERDF

The ERDF shall support:

a) investments in infrastructure;

b) investments in access to services;

c) productive investments in SMEs;

d) equipment, software and intangible assets;

e) information, communication, studies, networking, cooperation,

exchange of experience and activities involving clusters;

f) technical assistance.

In addition, the ERDF shall also support:

• productive investments in enterprises other than SMEs when they involve

cooperation with SMEs research and innovation capacities and the uptake

of advanced technologies under PO1 Smart Growth (a) (i)

• training, life-long learning and education activities under PO1 (a) (iv);

Country Report 2019 - R&D intensity still low

Public R&D: Stagnating, near EU average

Business R&D: Stagnating and now far below EU average

Total R&D expenditure: No progress, 2020 target will probablynot be reached.

Source: Eurostat

% of GDP PT EU

2010 2018 2010 2018

Public R&D expenditure 0.68 0.65 0.72 0.69

Business R&D expenditure 0.71 0.69 1.19 1.41

Private non-profit 0.16 0.02 0.02 0.02

Total R&D expenditure 1.54 1.35 1.92 2.11

2020 R&D target 2.70 3.00

Country Report 2019 - Academia-business co-

operation remains low

Portugal• Low level of science-

business cooperation (measured by co-publications)

• Private co-financing of public research relatively low

Source: EIS

Country Report 2019 – SMEs facing challenges to grow

PT EU

Survival rate of new-born firms, to n+1, 2016 73.6 > 80%

Death rate of new-born firms, 2016 14.6 8.4

Employment in fast-growing firms in innovative

sectors, % of total employment4.9 5.2

• SME facing challenges to grow and scale-up

Source: Eurostat

Country Report 2019 - Digital skills and use of digital

technologies

• Share of digital technology investmentsdeclining

• Low share of companiesselling online

Source: Country Report, DESI

Fulfilment criteria for the enabling condition

Smart specialisation strategy(ies) shall be supported by:

1. Up-to-date analysis of bottlenecks for innovation diffusion, including

digitalisation

2. Existence of competent regional / national institution or body, responsible for

the management of the smart specialisation strategy

3. Monitoring and evaluation tools to measure performance towards the

objectives of the strategy

4. Effective functioning of entrepreneurial discovery process

5. Actions necessary to improve national or regional research and innovation

systems

6. Actions to manage industrial transition

7. Measures for international collaboration

Policy objective Specific objective Name of enabling condition

1. A smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation

ERDF:All specific objectivesunder this policyobjectives

Good governance ofnational or regional smartspecialisation strategy

Enabling condition for smart specialisation

1. Up to date analysis of bottlenecks to innovation

diffusion, including digitalisation

Analysis has been undertaken to identify key bottlenecks such as:• Weaknesses in adoption at firm level of new technologies.• Failure by universities and RTOs to serve the needs of firms in their

ecosystem.• Inefficiencies of innovation agencies in facilitating knowledge flows

and coordination problems with other public agencies.• Lack of knowledge transfer from multinational companies to domestic

firms.

2. Existence of competent regional / national institution or

body responsible for the management of S3

There is a body which has a formal mandate and decisionalpowers to develop, coordinate the implementation and monitor thesmart specialisation strategy.

A monitoring and evaluation system is in place – under the coordinationof the competent institution - to collect information on theimplementation of smart specialisation priorities which capturesinformation per specialisation domain. This includes timely and regularcollection of data, its analysis and use as feedback on implementation.

3. Monitoring and evaluation tools to measure

performance towards objectives of the strategy

4. Effective functioning of the entrepreneurial discovery

process

There is an interactive and inclusive process in which actors frombusiness, research, civil society and public administration (quadruplehelix) identify specialisation priorities (or remove them if evidenceshows no progress). This is an ongoing process, where all stakeholdersare adequately represented.

5. Actions necessary to improve national or regional

research and innovation systemsCountry Specific Recommendations and the country reports within the European

Semester or dedicated evaluation shared and endorsed by Member States are to

be taken into account to identify shortcomings and needs for improvement and

define remediation actions.

In case there is no such evidence, this criterion should not be applicable.

6. Actions to manage industrial transition

The member state or region has undertaken analysis to identify sectors and

occupations in the region or member state which are challenged by globalisation,

technological change (notably linked to industry 4.0) and the shift to a low carbon

economy and identified appropriate actions to facilitate transition.

Where regions have experienced significant structural change, appropriate

actions have been identified to address reskilling of the workforce, diversification

of the economy, strengthening entrepreneurship and technological upgrading of

SMEs.

7. Measures for international collaboration

Opportunities for international collaboration with research andinnovation actors and private companies in similar priority areashave been identified/mapped.

Measures to engage regional stakeholders (universities, RTOs,SMEs, clusters) in participating in and developing EU orinternational value chains are being developed / promoted.

Obrigada!

zuzana.gakova@ec.europa.eu